


Creatures

by Stargazerlily052



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, M/M, Merman Anxiety | Virgil Sanders, Shapeshifter Deceit | Janus Sanders, Sympathetic Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders, Sympathetic Dark Sides (Sanders Sides), Sympathetic Deceit | Janus Sanders, Winged Morality | Patton Sanders
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-30
Updated: 2020-11-25
Packaged: 2021-03-02 17:08:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 3,315
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24450331
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stargazerlily052/pseuds/Stargazerlily052
Summary: With Virgil's kingdom in shambles and his best friend gone, he has to try to make it on his own.Roman and Remus worked for the king as two of the famed firewarriors, pyro-wielders who hunted down criminals, but uponmeeting one troublemaking shapeshifter they have to rethink their career choices.Janus always had to put himself above everyone else, though after an encounter with an injured merman and some kind people he might change his mind.Logan just wanted to visit his friend. He didn't mean to get caught up in a conspiracy, but it might hold some answers to the questions of his past.Patton offered a room to anyone who wanted to stay. He didn't care who they were, if they needed a place to stay Patton's home was always an option.
Relationships: Anxiety | Virgil Sanders/Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders, Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders/Deceit | Janus Sanders, Logic | Logan Sanders/Morality | Patton Sanders
Comments: 22
Kudos: 63





	1. Virgil's Escape

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Virgil has to get away. To where? He doesn't know yet.

Virgil was swimming as fast as he could, his best friend Talyn right beside him. Swimming away from a place he once called home and the enemy wasn’t too far behind. Never in a million years did he think something like this would happen, never, and Virgil wasn’t the most optimistic person, the exact opposite actually, but this was unimaginable even for him. It just wasn’t possible. He was confused and terrified.

Virgil looked to his right searching for the aid of his closest friend but, they weren’t there anymore. He whipped around only to see his friend struggling against the enemy's soldiers, their multi-colored tail thrashing in protest of the soldiers trying to restrain it. Virgil was hands started shaking. That was Talyn, his BEST friend, practically his sibling. His entire support system. The one who had his back always, no matter what happened. Talyn looked up and their eyes met Virgils. Determined met panic. “GO,” Talyn shouted fiercely.

Virgil's eyes filled with tears and his breathing sped up. He didn’t know what to do. He didn’t want to just leave them here, but what help would Virgil be if he stayed? He only knew basic self-defense and his magic was too out of control. If he tried to use it he would probably hurt Talyn as well…  
He looked up to Talyn as they fought against their attackers. Talyn’s always been strong like that. They were always protecting Virgil from harm, always there for him whenever he needed them. Talyn was always the stronger of the two, the fierce one, the brave one. Virgil trusted Talyn more than anyone and they told him to go.

Virgil hesitantly turned around,

away from his kingdom,

away from his people,

away from his family,

away from Talyn,

away from his home,

and began to swim.


	2. Cookies and Catching up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Patton has a chat with his favorite twins.

“Race you there!”

The wind blew his reddish-brown hair back, as Romans feet pushed off the ground, sending a familiar jolt through his body. He hoped to catch up to his twin brother, but alas when he got to his destination Remus was already there having arrived at the house only a few seconds earlier.

“Ha, I win!”

“No fair! You had a head start!” The princely man whined, but before Remus could voice his retort, the door opened, revealing a short man with large feathery wings tucked behind his back. His hair was light brown and curly only reaching the black rims of his glasses. He had freckles scattered all over his face and he wore a wide smile as bright as the sun.

“Hiya, Kiddos!” The man greeted.

“Patton!” Patton laughed as he was bombarded with hugs from the twins.

“Come in, Come in, both of you.”

The brothers entered the living room. The room had white walls and dark wood flooring. There was a light blue couch and a couple of chairs facing a fireplace. Roman and Remus went to sit on the couch while Patton went into his kitchen.

“So, how are my two favorite fire warriors?” The avian asked as he set down a plate of cookies, on the coffee table, in front of the couch.

“We’re well Padre. How have you been?” Roman responded as he reached for one of Patton's famous cookies.

“Oh! Well, you know how it is,” The ever joyful Patton replied, “Creatures come looking for hospitality and I provide.”

“Speaking of,” The more deranged brother said, “Have you seen anything freaky recently?”

“Nothing the two of you haven’t seen on one of your many adventures,” Patton answered, as he took a bite of his cookie.

“While we're on the topic of adventures,” Roman said standing up, ”we best be going on our next one.”

“I don't wanna leave!” Remus pouted

“I know. I don’t either, but there was a report of a shape-shifter causing trouble down in Elania.” Roman persisted, slipping his boots on.”

“Fine,” Remus gave in, “but only if I get to see him shift.”

“Alright”

“Bye, Kiddos!”

“Goodbye, Padre!”

“Byebye, Patty dearest!”

And with that, the twins raced each other to Elania.


	3. Red and Green

Janus shifted back into his human form when he heard voices. He shoved the coins into his satchel and casually leaned back against the crates behind him.

“Hello, sir.” called a man. He had brown wavy hair with a reddish tint and jade green eyes. He had a muscular build and wore a red and white fire warrior uniform. Behind was a seeming carbon copy except this one wore a green and black uniform.

“Have you seen a deceiving shape-shifter around here?” Red, as Janus has decided to call him, asked as he approached.

“No, I don’t think so. Sorry.” The men were much closer now and Janus was able to detect differences between the two. Green, as Janus has dubbed the second man, had a gray streak in his messy hair and a mustache.

“Are you sure?” Red asked, “ He could be disguised as an animal.” Janus shook his head.

_Idiots_

“Hey, you’re really hot.”

“Remus!” So, that was Green’s name.

“Sorry about him. We best be going now.” Red said as he dragged the other, Remus, away.

Janus smirked. _That was too easy_


	4. Logan's hike

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's so short

Logan hiked up the trail, bag strapped on his back. Grass parted for him, showing him the quickest route to his destination. The advantage of having a nymph as a mother he supposed.

The corners of his mouth curved upward when he saw a familiar house in the distance. He took out his flask and drank some of the water. He could feel the cold liquid move down his dry throat, as he took another step forward.

Soon he made it to the house. He stepped onto the pawprint welcome mat and knocked on the door.


	5. The Visit

“Logan!” Patton cheered joyfully as he wrapped his arms around his friend.

“Yes, hello Patton.” Logan greeted, as he awkwardly stood there while the avian hugged him tightly.

“It’s so good to see you!” He said finally letting go, “You rarely ever visit.”

“I’m a very busy man, Patton.” The logical man informed the other while straightening his tie.

“Yeah, yeah, I know.” Patton giggled, “Now, get in here! I have cookies!”

And so the researcher was dragged by the winged man into the home and onto the couch.

“Oh! I used that soap you gave me. It helped a lot.” said Patton while biting into a cookie.

“I noticed. Your wings look much silkier.” Logan commented. Patton blushed and swallowed the last of his chocolate chip cookie.

“There’s going to be a storm tonight.”

“That is correct.”

“How about you stay the night? I don’t want you walking all the way home in a storm.”

“That would be greatly appreciated, Patton.”

Patton squealed as he went to get a room ready for his friend.


	6. The Aftermath of the Storm

Janus sat on the edge of the dock kicking his feet in and out of the cool ocean water. Last night's storm had ended a few hours ago, and Janus couldn’t be more content. He watched as the waves crashed into the shore- 

_ Wait, what? _

There was something on the beach shore, something big, not whale big, but larger than an average fish. Janus couldn’t quite make it out, it was way too far away. 

Janus stood up on the dock and morphed into a seagull. He flew over to the mysterious object and shifted back into his human form. When he saw what it was he froze in shock.

_ A merman?!! _

Merfolk were hardly ever seen. They tend to keep to themselves, but now there was one right in front of him. The merman's black wavy hair was splayed on the sand, his pale face was on its side. Multiple earrings hung from his ears, and a lip ring was pierced through his bottom lip. His tail was a dark purple and seemed to be tangled in some sort of fishing net.

Once he got over his initial shock, Janus examined the fishnet. It was too knotted for him to just take it off. He would need to cut it off with something sharp, but before he could do that he would need to get the merman somewhere safe and he knew just the place. 

Janus scooped up the merman. and began to walk away from the beach and into the woods.


	7. Memories

_Virgil giggled as he squirmed under Talyn’s touch. “Stop,” he gasped as he tried to push them off._

_“Never!” Talyn continued to tickle him despite his protests._

_Just then someone entered the room, disrupting their fun._

_“Your royal highness, her majesty requests your presence,”_

_“Tell her I’ll be right there.”_

_“Yes, Your highness.” The servant bowed their head and exited the room._

_Virgil groaned and rested his head on Talyn’s shoulder._

_Noises penetrated Virgil’s ears. He wished he could be anywhere else. He bit his inner lip and crossed his arms._

_Virgil was about to leave when someone approached him._

_“Your Royal Highness?” The man bowed. “I’m Marquess Dillon Strand of Miara.”_

_“Very nice to meet you, Sir Strand,” Virgil responded politely, tapping his finger on his upper-arm._

_The Marquess continued to talk to Virgil while he nodded along, not really paying attention._

_“Anyways, I won’t be going there again.” The Marquess laughed._

_“Mhm.”_

_After the man left, Virgil hugged his arms closer to his chest, trying to calm down his breathing._

_“Hey, you okay?”_

_Virgil jumped at the sudden noise, only calming down after he realized who it was._

_“What is it?” Talyn furrowed Their eyebrows in concern._

_“Just a bit anxious. That’s all.” They gave him a small smile._

_“How we hang out ‘till this whole thing is over.”_

_“Yeah, that sounds good.”_

_His mind raced and Tears filled his eyes. His parents were going to be so upset with him. He curled up trying to find some sort of comfort. They would punish badly. He messed up, he messed up, he messed up-_

_“Virgil, breathe.” A kind voice said softly. ”In for 4 seconds, hold for 7, out for 8... May I touch you?”_

_As soon as Virgil nodded, arms gently wrapped around him._

_He held the small shell between his fingers. It was teal colored with black dots scattered all over it._

_“Oo, that’s a pretty one,” Talyn said looking over Virgil’s shoulder._

_“Yeah, it is.”_

_“Come on, let’s get back before our parents find out we’re gone.”_

_Virgil readjusted the collar of his shirt for what felt like the thousandth time._

_“Relax, you’ll do fine.”_

_“What if I embarrass myself in front of them? My parents will be disappointed in me. They’ll finally know that I can’t be a good ruler!”_

_“Virgil calm down!” Talyn put their hand on his shoulder._ _“You’re going to do great. You’re such a good person, you’ll make an amazing ruler.”_

_“Thanks,” He muttered in response, fiddling with his fingers._

_“I mean It Virgil,” Talyn said seriously, “You’re amazing and one day I hope you’ll realize that.”_


	8. Tea Time Interrupted

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Logan's "date" with Patton goes awry.

Light spilled into the room where Logan and Patton sat drinking their morning tea. 

Patton had his gray sweater wrapped around his hand to protect his skin from the steaming cup. His eyes were a bright blue that reminded Logan of the clear skies from where he grew up. Adorable freckles were sprinkled across his round face like ground cinnamon.

“So, Logan-” 

There was a loud knock on the door. The avian strode over to open it.

“Hiiii!” Two people, fire warriors, stood on the other side. Patton’s lovely eyes lit up behind his glasses upon seeing them.

“Oh, hello boys!” Patton grinned. “Come in! This is my friend, Logan. Logan, these two are my friends, Roman and Remus.”

“Greetings,” Roman said stepping inside Remus right behind him.

“Yo.”

“Pleased to make your acquaintance,” Logan greeted.

“Aww, all my friends are getting along,” Patton giggled.

Logan got an odd sinking feeling in his stomach. 

_ Could I be getting sick?  _

“Do you two want some tea?” 

“We’re okay Padre.” 

“Okey-dokey!” Patton sat back down at the small round table. “So, did you guys catch that shapeshifter?” 

“No. Sadly the villain escaped us this time.” 

“But we did meet a really hot guy!” 

The prince-like twin groaned.

“Will you stop talking about that guy! He wasn’t even that attractive.” 

“You’re just jealous!” 

“Jealous of what!” 

“Boys, boys please calm down.”

“Sorry, Patton” 

Logan’s eye twitched. These boys were interrupting his peaceful morning with Patton. They were making him upset. But they were Patton’s friends. They apologized. Logan tried to relax his stiffening body. If they made Patton happy he could deal with them. 

“He was really hot though. I wish I got his name.”

The door swung open to reveal someone carrying a merperson. Patton shot up from his seat 

“Janus, what happened? Who is this?”

“I’m not sure and I don’t know. I found him on the shore all tangled up. This is the only place I could think of.” 

Patton led them to one of the spare bedrooms. Janus laid the merman down on the twin-sized bed.

“Where did you find him?” Logan asked as Patton left to get some scissors.

“Washed up on shore after the storm.”

“Fascinating. Merfolk rarely interact with other species. Usually, when they wash up on shore they aren’t in good condition,” Logan ranted.

“I got them,” Patton said now back in the room holding out the scissors. Logan took them and began to gently cut the wire.

“I can only do so much, the net dug into the flesh under his scales,” Logan sighed, “Putting him in saltwater should help him heal.”

“I have a saltwater pond out back. Will that work?” Patton asked blue eyes glittering with tears of sympathy for the creature in front of them.

“That would work perfectly, Patton”

All five of them went out to the clearing behind Patton’s house and sure enough, there was a pond. Janus leaned down lying the mermaid on the water.

“This feels like a water burial.”

“Remus!’

“What? It’s true!”


	9. Roman Just Doesn't Understand

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Roman and Remus have an arguement

“He’s a criminal, like all the other ones we caught before him!” Roman shouted at Remus.

The two brothers have been arguing ever since Patton let slip that Janus was a shapeshifter. The shouting match was getting them nowhere Remus knew that but he needed to make his brother understand that Janus couldn’t be that bad.

“You’re letting your feelings for him get in the way of our mission! The king won’t be okay with this you know! He’ll fire you! Do you want to lose your place as one of the mighty fire warriors to a criminal!”

Remus might’ve said yes if he was a braver man, but he didn’t want to lose his brother, so he used the best deflection method he knew.

“Juicy butthole!”

“What?” Roman sighed. “We’ll continue this conversation later!”

Only after Roman walked away did Remus let his body sag. He hated fighting with his brother.

“So are you going to arrest me now?”

Remus jumped at the unexpected voice. Turning around he saw Janus leaning up against a wall.

“Nah.”

“What?”

“I don’t feel like it”

“Won’t you get fired?”

“Eh.” Remus shrugged, feigning indifference.

“You aren’t weird at all,” Janus replied sarcastically.

“Yeah, I get that a lot,” Remus said in a joking tone

“So, what’s it like?”

“What’s what like?”

“Shapeshifting!”

“Oh! That’s a simple, easy thing to explain to someone who’s never shifted before.”

“Really?”

“No.”

Remus giggled at the straight forward response.

Janus raised his eyebrow as if he were surprised by the pyro-wielder’s reaction, which just made Remus laugh more. And you know what they say; laughter is contagious, and so Janus began to laugh along with him. Remus didn’t know why exactly he was laughing at this point, and he had a feeling that Janus didn’t either.

Soon their laughter became gasps of breath. Remus straightened his posture and gave Janus a toothy smile.

He could tell that they were going to be great friends.


	10. Janus' Dilemma

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Janus likes Remus even if he knows he shouldn't.

Janus knew he should have been warier of Remus and his questions but he couldn’t help but be inwardly excited that someone was curious about his shapeshifting.  
“Does it hurt?”  
“The first few times, but not anymore, though when I’m growing something like feathers or scales it tends to ich.”  
“What are you the most?” Remus asked.  
“Probably a snake.”  
“Radical!”  
“Radical? Seriously?” Janus snorted.  
“Yep! Can you only change into animals and stuff or can you turn into, like, a chair?”  
“I can only turn into living beings.”  
Remus pouted like he was disappointed.  
“What?”  
“That ruins a lot of the ideas I had.”  
“What kind of ideas?”  
“Y’know scaring my brother, that kind of thing,” Remus giggled.  
 _Stop it! This guy is a fire warrior. Fire warriors are mean and cruel, not endearing._  
It’s not like Janus hated pyro-wielders as a whole. He wasn’t the type to hate an entire race for something they can’t control. No, he hated fire warriors. The fire warriors were a group of pyro-wielders hand-picked by the King to track down criminals. Pyro-wielders were a race of humans that could summon and manipulate fire.  
“What’s wrong?” Remus asked seemingly concerned  
“Nothing, I was just thinking.” Janus would have to be more cautious around him in the future.


	11. Virgil Wakes Up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Virgi meets Patton and Janus.

Virgil woke up to the safety of Talyn’s comforting hug leaving him. His head throbbed as he tried and failed to remember where he was.

The last thing he remembered was swimming away from what once was his kingdom.

He swam up until he broke through the surface. Looking around he realized he was in a pond.

_How in the everliving—_

His thoughts cut off when he heard voices coming towards him. He dove back underwater.

Virgil knew there was only one way to get himself out of this mess and he wasn’t even sure that it would work. After all, he had only been told stories about it, he had never tried it out himself.

Once he was sure the owners of the voices were gone he went back up to the surface and swam to shore. Virgil hauled his tail up onto the grass by the house and tried to sit up. He closed his eyes focused on his tail and tried to imagine if it were two legs instead of an extension of his spine. He felt a tingling sensation that started at his waist and traveled down to the very ends of his tail.

He opened his eyes and looked down and there they were _legs_. He had legs!

He grabbed onto the side of the house leaning on it as he tried to stand up like he saw the humans do in the depictions back home. Very shakily he began to rise, only to trip over himself. Luckily his arm caught him before he could hit the ground.

“It’s alright, Patton. I know you didn’t mean it.”

Virgil’s eyes widened as two men turned the corner.

“Oh my! Are you alright?” The shorter man said as he ran up to Virgil. It was then that Virgil noticed the huge quivering wings on his back.

_An avian!_

“Wait a minute,” the non-avian stranger started, his two different colored eyes staring into Virgil’s soul, “You’re the merman I found.”

“Oh, you’re right! It is!”

“Umm…”

“How did you get out of the pond?”

“I… Old merfolk magic,” Virgil said deciding to answer their questions, for now, “Legend says… legend says it was taught to us by the shapeshifters.”

“Oh, then it must have been fate for Janus to find you!” The avian gasped and his face fell, “Oh no, I did it again.“

The other guy, presumably Janus, just laughed, well it was more of a snicker.

“What… What’s going on?”

“I found you washed up on the shore and decided to bring you here."

“Oh…”

“C’mon,” said the avian, “Let’s get you some clothes inside.”

“I… Okay.”


End file.
